Lincoln Cathedral

Almost forgot I hadn't finished my report of cathedral visits up north the other week, so here it is...

In a previous post I left off with my two-hour train ride from Leeds to Lincoln while David went to meetings. Lincoln Cathedral is one of the biggest cathedrals and in England and universally considered one of the best, so I was quite excited to see it. It did not disappoint!

As we pulled into the station at Lincoln, I was thrilled to get a surprise first glimpse of it across a lovely swan-filled river:



I had forgotten that it was perched so high on a hill, though, so it was a little overwhelming to think of the hike I had ahead of me. And it was quite a hike indeed. I had only limited time to spend in Lincoln before I had to be back in Leeds, so I went as fast as possible and was sure huffing and puffing when I finally reached the top about 15 minutes later!


This road is called "Steep Hill," and aptly so. It was a very charming medieval street filled with great galleries, tea shops, pubs and such.


At the top of Steep Hill is the Cathedral Quarter, which was fantastic.

It is not really clear in the above photo because of the tree, but the cathedral's facade is almost entirely obscured by a great stone gateway:


Cathedral gateway (taken from the cathedral side)

And so you can't really see the cathedral very well as you approach. Then you walk through the darkness of the gateway before emerging into the light and seeing this:



Even my wide-angle lens doesn't do this view justice. I was absolutely blown away! That facade is the hugest, most cliff-like thing I've ever seen in an ancient building. If you look at the size of the people in the above photo, you might be able to imagine what it's like when they look up at it. Just incredible.



That huge central portal is also very cool and quite unique. It is filled with fantastic carved sculptures in wondrous detail, and I was so sorry I had to leave before the sun fully swung around to the west to shine on it.


Details of the portal in the shade.


When I first arrived, there was a graduation ceremony for the University of Lincoln being held inside. This was a bummer, but the cathedral is so huge that visitors were still let inside the eastern half of the interior, and I was able to see the western part after the ceremony was over about an hour later.


And the morning sun did give me a good opportunity to photograph the east end. On the right is the Chapter House, where the cathedral's dean and chapter meet to discuss church matters. It's patterned after the chapter houses used by monks, but Lincoln Cathedral has never been attached to a monastery (there's no river up here on the hill, for one thing).


There were great gargoyles all over the outside, and I took some time with our little zoomy camera to capture some of them. Above is a pig and a man with a bugle (?) high atop a pinnacle.

Inside, the highlights included:


The beautiful east window, still with its medieval stained glass


A soaring Gothic nave, which my wide-angle lens seems made for



A lovely choir, with a full set of choir stalls with many medieval carvings


A nice chapter house with star vault and...


...set pieces from The Da Vinci Code movie!

Lincoln Cathedral stood in as Westminster Abbey during filming, and lots of monuments and murals were constructed to make it look the part. It was a pretty exciting event for the people of Lincoln and many of them even got to be extras in the movie. Some of the props have been left on display in the chapter house, along with some interesting posters about the whole experience. I learned that Audrey Tatou was always cold in the cathedral and that Tom Hanks promised his sons a game of cricket in Hyde Park one weekend. Fun stuff.


The set included these very real-looking murals painted on a canvas in the chapter house, and still left in place.


By this time I was so hungry I was actually starting to feel a little dizzy (sightseeing is the only time I regard eating as inconvenient!), so I stopped in the cloister cafe for a quick lunch. In between bites I attempted to send a text message to David about my return plans. I don't know how some people text as fast as they do. Practice, I'm sure, but I find it so tedious.

Then I headed back outside and over to Lincoln Castle to climb the observatory tower for photos of the cathedral. This was actually my second time doing this (the first was while waiting for graduation to finish), but I was hoping the light would be a bit better by now since it was approaching 1:30.


Lincoln Castle gate and inside, with tents for graduate receptions.


The observatory tower that I climbed twice, and a view of the castle wall from its base.


The climb was well worth it - such a nice view!

I had waited until the absolute last minute in the hopes of getting the best light on the west front, so then I had to really hustle back down the hill to the station for the 2:04 train back to Leeds. Boy were my legs like jelly by then! Thankfully I made it, and even had three minutes to buy a water and magazines before boarding. Also got to talk to David briefly as he was on a break from his meetings, which was nice.

I had a pleasant ride to Newark where I had to change trains, but then the fun ended. I took about 30 seconds to find my connecting train's platform on the departures screen, then as I was crossing the footbridge over the tracks, I heard the whistle for my train! I sprinted down the stairs and just as I reached it and still held out hope for hopping on, it pulled away.

I was so disappointed, especially because it meant I would hold up David from getting back home from Leeds. He had told me his meetings would be over by 3:00, but had said to take my time since I was having such a good time. What a guy. My train was supposed to arrive in Leeds at 4:00, but now the next one wouldn't get me there until 4:30. And then that train showed as being delayed... and then it was cancelled. We're not in Switzerland anymore, Toto.

So I hung out in the waiting room of the Newark village train station for a couple hours, trying to remain calm and being very thankful for those magazines I'd picked up in Lincoln. David continued to be great about the whole thing as I kept him updated via short exasperated text messages.

Eventually we decided that the best bet now would be for him to come pick me up on his way home. In the meantime, I got to chat with a nice lady from Alberta, Canada on an outdoor bench in the sunshine. I learned about the Chinook Winds, which apparently is not just a casino in Oregon but a phenomenon that gives Alberta crazy temperature changes. Very interesting.

My rescuer showed up around 4:30, still in pretty good spirits despite his unplanned detour to Newark, and we had a nice rest of the drive home. We even ended up getting home about the same time we'd hoped. So British train failures notwithstanding, we had quite a good time on our two-day adventure up north.

There are lots more photos of Lincoln Cathedral here.